Spacex Making 1St US Crew Splashdown in Dark Since Apollo 8 30 April 2021, by Marcia Dunn

SpaceX making 1st US crew splashdown in dark since Apollo 8 30 April 2021, by Marcia Dunn

said Rob Navias, a spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"SpaceX has done numerous dress rehearsals and spent a lot of time with nighttime recoveries," he said.

Navias said the time slot provided the best weather conditions in the coming days.

The capsule carrying Apollo 8's three astronauts—the first men to fly to the moon—splashed into the Pacific near Hawaii before This photo combination provided by NASA shows from dawn on Dec. 27, 1968. left, Expedition 64 Flight Engineers and SpaceX Crew-1 members Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon The Russians also had one crew splashdown in Walker and Soichi Noguchi. SpaceX is targeting the darkness, back in 1976. The two-man capsule predawn hours of Sunday, May 2, to bring back three could not dock to the Soviet Union's Salyut 5 space NASA astronauts and one from Japan, after dangerously station as intended and had to make a hasty return, high wind scuttled a pair of earlier attempts. (NASA via ending up in a partially frozen lake in AP) Kazakhstan—in the middle of a blizzard. It took hours for recovery teams to rescue the cosmonauts. SpaceX this weekend will attempt the first U.S. Even with the early hour, the Coast Guard splashdown of returning astronauts in darkness promises to have more patrols to keep sightseers since the Apollo 8 moonshot in 1968. at a safe distance. On a Sunday afternoon last August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule that Elon Musk's company is targeting the predawn parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico with the first hours of Sunday to bring back three NASA SpaceX crew. astronauts and one from Japan, after dangerously high wind scuttled a pair of earlier attempts. The departure of NASA's Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi The astronauts—only the second crew to fly Noguchi will leave seven aboard the space station. SpaceX—will depart the International Space Station Their replacements—representing the U.S., Japan on Saturday night aboard the SpaceX Dragon and France—arrived last weekend in their own capsule that carried them up last November. SpaceX capsule for a six-month mission. The three They'll aim for a splashdown 6 1/2 hours later, remaining crew members—one American and two around 3 a.m. in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Russians—launched in a Russian capsule from Panama City, Florida. Kazakhstan three weeks ago. SpaceX brought back a station cargo capsule with © 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. a splashdown in darkness in January. That adds to This material may not be published, broadcast, NASA's confidence for a nighttime homecoming, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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APA citation: SpaceX making 1st US crew splashdown in dark since Apollo 8 (2021, April 30) retrieved 30 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-04-spacex-1st-crew-splashdown-dark.html

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